Right to academic freedom

Madam, - Since my letter calling for the establishment of a National Board for Academic Freedom was published in your edition…

Madam, - Since my letter calling for the establishment of a National Board for Academic Freedom was published in your edition of July 24th, there has been considerable debate as to whether academic freedom is a right or a privilege.

To suggest that academic freedom is a privilege bestowed by the university but that it is not a right to be enjoyed by the individual academic is surely tantamount to endorsing an exclusive hierarchy in which the individual must conform to the arbitrary dictates of "select committees" which determine what is or is not acceptable.

What is a university if not the entire body of individual academics in its employ?

However, what we see too often is the inability of the "university" (or rather a number of its officers) to protect and promote academic freedom, and this is why a National Board for Academic Freedom is required: to act as an objective external monitor when controversial academic issues arise and to ensure fairness in the way in which they are dealt with.

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We should surely hold fast to the humanist ideal, such as that evoked by the Renaissance author François Rabelais at the end of Gargantua: the Abbey of Thélème, a flourishing seat of learning and respect for the individual in stark contrast to the repressive Sorbonne, is governed efficiently and harmoniously by the motto "Fay ce que vouldras" (Do as you wish). - Yours, etc.,

SARAH ALYN STACEY, French Department, Trinity College, Dublin 2.